This is interesting because I used to think like many of the readers who have posted above. When I bought my first few investment properties about 30 years ago I thought I could collect the rental as well as anyone, but I have changed my mind over the years.

If all your PM does is collect the rents then you are right, you probably could do it…[Read more]

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Thank you Michael,

You are very helpful.
Yes, we do intend to draw a plans and go to the council and talk to them first before we do more detailed plans. We know the regulations and the Res Code. Usually the Res Code is not that strict that’s why some people after they have knock back from council go to tribunal and very often they win.…

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Hi Michael,

Just wondering if you have an office or someone you would recommend for a similar project in Sydney…

I’m still weighing up my options whether to do all the hard work myself or get a company like yours in so i can relax… []

Cheers,
Paul…

“The only thing you get from looking backwards is a sore neck…”

Sorry Paul

We…[Read more]

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Michael,

I have checked out the web site.
Impressive, it looks like you have built a lot of projects.

Can you tell if all of them are subdivisions or you do both (single homes one on block and subdivisions)

Do you work only with investors’ money or the company has projects that are finance by the company and at the end sell them to i…

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Pebbles,

You scared me, we have bought a corner block with 60 years old house on it (which we are thinking to demolish, still exploring the options). The thing is that the area is very good close to shops and train station and guess what a lot of old people live around us we know for a fact that one of our neighbors will be trouble but I…

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Michael,

Great post – thank you for the terrific rundown on the development process. Just today I was trying to find out all of that info because I was evaluating a 1000 sqm block with an old 50’s house on one end, corner block running nicely east-west on it’s longest side. I rang a local surveyor who was terribly kind and helpful and gave…

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Very good info!!!

Can you please tell us, when you do calculations to see if a project is worth doing how much profit you are seeking to achieve per unit?

Thanks Maggie

I am not trying to achieve a profit per unit, but a return on funds invested. The return I am looking for is dependant upon the time frame of the development and the…[Read more]

As an experienced property developer and a development project manager involved in 50 projects around Melbourne at present I am seeing many investors showing an interest in property development.

While there are some potentially large profits, most begining developers I see make a loss as they don’t understand the development process.

As there is…[Read more]

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BTW does any of those programs also do IRR (internal Rate of Return) over a time line of years?

Dolf De Roos wisely recommends this as a final analysis on the numbers of a deal. It’s basic financial analysis I did back at uni all those years ago….

David Paxton
“You Only Live Twice”

PIA which is a great program calculates IRR

Michael…[Read more]

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Thanks everyone. This has helped alot. Getting back to the original reason for this post, one of the PM’s I contacted charges 9% letting fee of rent every time they renew the lease. EVEN IF IT’S THE SAME TENANT!!

I.E. Lease renewal for 6 months works out to the following. 26 weeks times $200 rent times 9% equals $468.00!!

Needless to…

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Hi Michael, An excellent post. My previous PM was excellent, but went on to bigger and better things (sales) same office. The new PM wasn’t performing up to scratch so a quick telephone call to the last one changed this. I followed this up with a call to the new PM and everything has been going excellently. What area of Melbourne does…

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Steveod
A good property manager does a lot more than collect rents and therefore should pay their way.

By maximising your rental, keeping vacancies to a minimum, handling arrears and advising on refurbishments or repairs that will maximise your rent a good property manager is worth their weight in gold.

The difficulty is finding a good one. I…[Read more]

Valuers are tending to be conservative at present and interestingly their figures can vary considerably.

We recently completed a development of 6 townhouses in an inner Melbourne suburb for a group of clients. They each had different valuers value their properties for mortgage purposes.

Four of the townhouses are virtually identical yet…[Read more]

I was investing in property in the middle 80’s when the labour govt abolished negative gearing.

At that stage I was pretty heavily negatively geared.

What happened then was that you could continue negatively gearing properties that you have bought prior to the change in legislation, but you could not write off property losses from new purchases…[Read more]

PIA by Jan Somers is a great program to compare one potential property investmnet to another, but as has already been mentioned, to make it work effectively you need to input many variables
It’s a simple program to use, but you need to have a little property knowledge to get the most out of it.
The personal edition is all the average investor…[Read more]

Another link that may be of interest is for a free monthly property invetsment newsletter written by someone who has successfully invested in property for 30 years
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